There are services or clients built into many mobile devices today that can be set up and managed remotely. Examples of these include the SyncML client for synchronizing contact and calendar information, and Microsoft's Device Management Client for updating application and operating system upgrades. In order to bring these clients under the remote control of a server, it is necessary to set up a trusted relationship between the mobile device and the server wishing to take control of the client on the mobile device.
The protocol used to set up these clients needs to be formatted correctly to work. The formatting of the protocol is usually dependent on the precise model of the mobile device. Many mobile phone models do not display the model number of the device on the external casing which means that a very large proportion of customers do not know the model number of their mobile phone.
This is particularly problematic where the service provider offering the service is not also a mobile operator and so does not have access to the mobile network data on the home location register from which the model of the device can otherwise be determined.
Current implementations of services typically ask the user to enter in the IMEI (the international mobile equipment identity number) associated with the mobile phone so that the operator can determine the mobile model number (as the first eight digits of an IMEI give the TAC code of the device, which is uniquely associated with a specific model number). However, unless a user happens to know this code, the user might be asked to obtain it by turning off their phone and look for the model information that this typically held on an identification sticker/plate under the battery. This is hardly efficient from a user's perspective. A second method commonly used invites the customer to select their phone model by identifying it from a number of pictures on a web site. However, this is prone to error as many models from a phone manufacturer now look similar to one another. A further method is to ask the user to key in a special code *#06# into the mobile phone to get the phone to return the IMEI on the screen. However, this still requires the user to correctly note down the resulting 15 digit number and then key this into appropriate system, which is prone to user error.